On 20th November our guest blog made these points about the A259:

The major conurbations except for Chichester are on the Coast, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis none of whom are served by the A27, they are linked by the A259. Arun District Council’s Local Plan has been rejected as it does not cater for enough new housing; the vast majority of the planned housing is to be on the A259 corridor.

Since the SoCoMMS report the Angmering Bypass linking the A27 and A259 was opened 28th February 2003, the North Bersted Bypass was opened on 17th December 2014, taking much of the through traffic on the A259 out of North West Bognor and the Felpham Relief Road is now due to be opened in March 2016, this completes the major modernisation work on the A259 between Worthing and Chichester

Parsons Brinkerhoff did a report for WSCC in February 2013, the “A259 Improvement Study”. Sadly this only looked at the Worthing to the Arun section of the road. It took account of some of the new developments in the area, but unfortunately for the public purse, it did not consider the influence of the North Bersted and Felpham schemes, making its conclusions challengeable.

As the A259 is connecting the major economic drivers of the region it would seem illogical to put a major investment in the A27, at Arundel, which there seem to be no supportable business case for. The traffic situation at Arundel could be alleviated and the flow of traffic in this part of the A27 Corridor made to flow much more smoothly, if a new semi on line route consisting of a wide single carriageway road was constructed, with a new bridge over the railway line along the line of the previously proposed Purple Route. The saving from the construction costs at Arundel could then be invested in improvements at Worthing, to enable the necessary goods vehicles to access the A259 to feed the supermarkets and other out of town shopping and industrial facilities on the coastal belt.

It is interesting to see that according to HE’s South Coast Central Route Strategy summary of Key opportunities ... HE do also note that the A259 acts as alternative route to the A27 through Littlehampton.

Philip Gadsby the blog author also reported on Reasons to journey between Worthing and Chichester:

The way that people shop has also changed dramatically between 2002 and 2015, many town centres are really sad reflections of their former glories, many people either shop on line or go to retail parks.

If one looks at the A259 between West Worthing and South of Chichester, it is interesting to see how many opportunities optimised for car users there are.

There are many other industrial developments with direct access to the A259 between West Worthing and Chichester.

If on the other hand one travels from Chichester to Worthing on the A27, the following amenities are available.

Type

Location

Comment

Esso petrol station

Tangmere

On other carriageway

Jump Racing Course

Fontwell

Also hosts car boot sales

Services Area

Fontwell

Shell Garage, Little Chef and Travelodge

White Swan Pub

West of Arundel

Good parking

Hotel

Arundel

Arundel Park Hotel

Arundel Station

Arundel

Difficult to turn East out of

Hotel and Public House

Crossbush

Premier Inn and Beefeater

Services Area

Crossbush

Comfort Inn, McDonald’s and BP Service Station

Light Industrial Estate

Poling

The Vinery, on other carriageway

Public House

Hammerpot

The Woodman Arms

Garage and Wood Yard

Hammerpot

Garage no longer serves fuel, on other carriageway

Reviewing the evidence of economic activity along the two road corridors from West Worthing to Chichester it is apparent that the A27 is a good route if you want to find a hotel, fill your vehicle with fuel or have a pint of beer, traveling down the A259 on the other hand enables you to shop at a variety of nationally branded supermarkets, purchase new cars and car parts, purchase beds, pet food and DIY equipment. There also opportunities to fill your car with petrol at a number of places including the supermarkets and there are public houses and fast food outlets at various locations.

The facilities in the A27 it is true to say have not materially changed since the SoCOMMs work on traffic volumes was done. The Hammerpot Garage at that time may have been serving petrol, the facilities on the A259 have materially changed, there are at least two new major supermarkets on the route, ASDA and Morrisons. Sainsbury’s at Rustington and Tesco at Littlehampton have both been modernised and expanded. There is a new large Sainsbury on the A29 in Bognor as well as a modernised Tesco within a few hundred yards.

Most of the goods and materials arranged for sale at the outlets on the A259 come from outside West Sussex and require goods vehicles to deliver them to the stores. The main arteries used to deliver these goods from the north and M25 would either be the M23 or the A24, access to the A259 would in most cases be achieved from the A27/A280 junction at Clapham, the A280 links directly with the A259 at the end of the Roundstone Bypass. Travelling from the West it would be logical to either use the A259 to Bognor from Chichester or possibly to go to Fontwell and use the A29 to approach the north of Bognor Regis.

The logistical needs of these “out of town” developments are very important to factor into any transport planning scenario. It will be recalled that the SoCoMMs study stated that the amount of through traffic on the A27 in West Sussex was low. The two paragraphs below are from The Final Report South Coast Corridor Multi-Modal Study, August 2002:

The Car: the average car journey is less than 25km and very little interaction occurs between towns more than 50km apart. As documented above, serious congestion occurs in peak periods on the approaches to towns and cities corridor-wide. Congestion can be correlated closely with a number of bottlenecks within the sub-regional highway network.

Freight: with notable exceptions, such as Southampton Port, most freight movements are by road and are generally between the study area and other parts of the UK on a north-south axis. There are not currently, nor are there projected to be, major east-west movements of freight within the corridor.

These two paragraphs are still very valid. The congestion experienced at times through Chichester, Arundel and Worthing can all be traced to bottlenecks in the sub regional highway network and there is very little evidence of the A27 being used as a through trunk route for freight.